Gurgly Peterson fix

Do any of you have a gurgly Peterson system pipe?

I have had this Peterson bent pipe for years, which I smoked very little because of the incessant gurgling that would start up after about 5 min. smoking. I loved the shape and feel, so I never got rid of it, always hoping that some day I could figure out what to do with it.

Since it's a system pipe I couldn't run a cleaner down the stem into the bowl as I do my other pipes. It would always hit the reservoir and stop. It would never sop up all the liquid, and after a few more puffs it would start gurgling again.

This evening I had an epiphany! I had some old Savinelli balsam wood filters that I never use. I took one and cut off about 1/2 " of it and stuffed it into the reservoir of the Peterson. Re-attached the stem and filled it up and smoked away.

Not a gurgle. Not a one! I have been doing this all evening to make sure it wasn't just a fluke. It works great!

Not all Peterson's are as wet smoking as mine from what I gather here on the forum, but if you have one that is, this seems to be a good fix.

Hi Lawrence,
Well, yes. I didn't want to get too into details, but you're right. What I do is that after I smoke the bowl, I set the pipe down and let it cool. Then I remove the stem and take out the piece of balsa wood which is saturated, and swab out the reservoir and the rest of the air hole and tobacco chamber with a pipe cleaner, and put a fresh piece of balsa in the reservoir and I'm ready for another smoke. Fiddly I grant you, but it smokes without a gurgle. And it let's me enjoy the pipe like never before.